Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Feb 15:239:8-14.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2012.10.035. Epub 2012 Oct 26.

Daily treadmill exercise attenuates cocaine cue-induced reinstatement and cocaine induced locomotor response but increases cocaine-primed reinstatement

Panayotis K Thanos  1 , Joshua Stamos, Lisa S Robison, Gary Heyman, Andrew Tucci, Gene-Jack Wang, John K Robinson, Brenda J Anderson, Nora D Volkow
Affiliations

Daily treadmill exercise attenuates cocaine cue-induced reinstatement and cocaine induced locomotor response but increases cocaine-primed reinstatement

Panayotis K Thanos et al. Behav Brain Res. .

Abstract

Exercise affects neuroplasticity and neurotransmission including dopamine (DA), which modulates drug-taking behavior. Previous research in rodents has shown that exercise may attenuate the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse. The present study examined the effects of high and low exercise on cocaine responses in male Wistar rats that had been trained to self-administer and were compared to a group of sedentary rats. High exercise rats (HE) ran daily on a treadmill for 2h and low exercise (LE) ran daily for 1h. After 6 weeks of this exercise regimen, rats were tested over 2 days for reinstatement (day 1: cue-induced reinstatement; day 2: cocaine-primed reinstatement). During cue-induced reinstatement, the sedentary rats showed the expected increase in active lever responses when compared to maintenance, whereas these increased responses were inhibited in the exercised rats (HE and LE). During cocaine-primed reinstatement, however, there was a significant increase in active lever presses when compared to maintenance only in the HE group. This data suggests that chronic exercise during abstinence attenuates the cue-induced reinstatement seen in the sedentary rats by 26% (LE) and 21% (HE). In contrast, only the high exercise rats exhibited sensitized cocaine-seeking behavior (active lever presses) following cocaine-primed reinstatement. Finally, while sedentary rats increased locomotor activity during cocaine-primed reinstatement over that seen with cocaine during maintenance, this was not observed in the exercised rats, suggesting that exercise may interfere with the sensitized locomotor response during cocaine reinstatement.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A timeline outlining the sequence of procedures during the study.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Cue-induced reinstatement: active lever presses vs. maintenance (M). The sedentary group shows a significant increase in active lever presses when compared to M (*p < 0.001). There is no significant increase from maintenance for either of the exercise groups.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Cocaine-primed reinstatement: active lever presses vs. M. HE rats lever pressed more than during M (*p < 0.01), and also exhibited significantly increased lever pressing compared to LE rats during reinstatement (#p < 0.01).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Locomotor activity during cocaine-primed reinstatement. There was a significant increase in locomotor activity for only the S group during reinstatement compared to M (*p < 0.001).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Correlations between number of cue induced active lever presses on the first reinstatement test with cocaine induced active lever presses on the second reinstatement test. There is a significant correlation between cocaine induced and cue induced active lever presses in the HE (p < 0.01) and S (p = 0.05) groups. There was no significant correlation between active lever presses for the two reinstatement tests in the LE group (p = 0.33).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anker JJ, Carroll ME. Adolescent nicotine exposure sensitizes cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine seeking in rats bred for high and low saccharin intake. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2011;118(1):68–72. - PubMed
    1. McCloskey DP, Adamo DS, Anderson BJ. Exercise increases metabolic capacity in the motor cortex and striatum, but not in the hippocampus. Brain Research. 2001;891(1–2):168–75. - PubMed
    1. Isaacs KR, Anderson BJ, Alcantara AA, Black JE, Greenough WT. Exercise and the brain: angiogenesis in the adult rat cerebellum after vigorous physical activity and motor skill learning. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. 1992;12(1):110–9. - PubMed
    1. Vissing J, Andersen M, Diemer NH. Exercise-induced changes in local cerebral glucose utilization in the rat. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. 1996;16(4):729–36. - PubMed
    1. MacRae PG, Spirduso WW, Cartee GD, Farrar RP, Wilcox RE. Endurance training effects on striatal D2 dopamine receptor binding and striatal dopamine metabolite levels. Neuroscience Letters. 1987;79(1–2):138–44. - PubMed

Publication types